Keep Your Friends Close And Your Enemies Closer
by ilovetvalot
Summary: When Erin Strauss faces a brush with death, how will she respond when David Rossi offers his expert opinion on the chain of events? Two-shot.
1. Chapter 1

**_Hello, friends! Our newest challenge, Fanfic Challenge Round 12 "Writers of the Silver Screen" is underway! Assignments have been distributed, and new stories are already being posted, so please check out the forum for the updated list!_**

**_Oh, and we're having a lot of fun over at Facebook. To join in the conversations, simply friend "Ilovetvalot Fanfiction". That's me. I'll get you added as quickly as possible. It's just another way for we writers and readers to communicate. And I love to hear from y'all._**

**_Gotta take a second to thank all our loyal readers for sticking with us. Tonnie and I are having a blast bringing y'all stories. We do want to let you know that our posts may be a tad bit slower over the next few weeks. Tracia's husband is now home from Afghanistan on mid-tour leave (Hallelujah!) and Tonnie's real life is a bouncing handful right now (also a Hallelujah, just a bit more subdued!) We appreciate your support, and we are diligently working on all of our epics and many new oneshots!_**

**_Now, on with the show..._**

* * *

**_Keep Your Friends Close...And Your Enemies Closer_**

**_TV Prompt: Sea Patrol -_****_ Friends Close, Enemies Closer_**

**Chapter One**

Erin Strauss grimaced as she felt the cool splash of a tear against her cheek. _Weak bitch, _she sneered to herself, brushing the tear away with one impatient hand as she stared at the city lights of DC in the distance from her perch on the roof of the Hoover building.

Death was inevitable. Even more so when you were a federal agent. The risk went with the job description. She'd always known it. But to have seen it happen to one so young...so promising. It was such an incredible waste. Especially since it had all been to save her.

Lifting her shaky hand to her lips, she inhaled deeply on the Marlboro Light between her fingertips. God, she needed that. True, she'd now destroyed a twenty year streak as a non-smoker to partake in a long forbidden habit, but after what she'd seen today, she'd earned it. _Your soul is already black as tar, Erin...your lungs might as well match._

Nothing like having an inner voice that told the truth, was there?

"I thought I'd find you up here," a deep familiar voice commented neutrally behind her.

She didn't even have to turn around to know who had invaded her space. Shit. Not him. Not tonight. She might, and might was a strong word, be able to handle anyone else right now...but not him.

"Didn't you give those up?" he asked, frowning at the smoking cigarette between her bent fingers. "A woman your age really shouldn't be taking those kind of risks, should she?" he asked, reaching for the lit cigarette she held.

Jerking her hand out of his reach, Erin glared. "Go away, David. I doubt there's any insult left in your arsenal that you haven't already hurled at me at least once over the years. And, quite frankly, if I am forced to endure any of your usual crap, one of us is going over the edge of this roof," she said gravely, nodding at the ledge before turning her glare back in his direction.

Idly peering over the edge, Rossi raised an eyebrow. "That'd definitely smart." Leaning a hip negligently against the waist high wall bracketing the roof, Dave sighed. "I didn't come up here tonight to fight with you, Erin. I wanted to make sure that you were going to be all right," he said, watching as she took another long drag from the cigarette she held.

Coughing slightly, the frigid air and the smoke combining to angrily remind her lungs they weren't in their mid-twenties anymore, Erin shot Dave a look filled with pure skepticism. "Forgive me, if I don't immediately trust your noble motives, David. You hate me, remember?" she said mistrustfully, taking a half-step backwards as she propped her arm against the ledge.

"Hate is a strong word," Dave shrugged, pursing his lips as she took another drag. "You really don't need to be doing that, Erin," he remarked, frowning at the burning end of the cigarette.

"Oh, but David," Erin drawled as she blew out a puff of perfect smoke, "That's the story of my life, isn't it? Doing things I shouldn't. Damning the consequences..."

"It wasn't your fault," Dave said softly, moving a half step closer when she shivered slightly. "You don't even have a coat, Erin," he grumbled, unbuttoning his suit jacket.

"Temperature doesn't influence a cold-blooded reptile, David," Erin ground out, flicking her cigarette butt over the edge of the roof and lighting another in one smooth motion, no lost energy in the transfer. "We both know you think I'm a snake," she said, trying to control her chattering teeth by clamping the cigarette tightly between her teeth. "And maybe you were right all along."

"I prefer to think of you more as a cat, Erin," Dave muttered, wrapping his coat around her thin shoulders in spite of her attempts to shrug him away. "You always land on your feet."

"Yes," Erin agreed bitterly, inhaling deeply on the cigarette, closing her eyes as her lungs filled, "while good agents die in my place."

"That _isn't_ the way I meant that," Dave countered as he winced, realizing how she'd interpreted his remark. "What I meant was..."

"David, please. Go. Away," Erin bit out, squeezing her eyes tightly closed as the events of the afternoon played out in her mind's eye once again, an endless loop of horror that she couldn't control. "I want to be alone."

"No," he said immediately, firmly, his denial hanging in the charged air between them.

"Why the hell not?" she barked, turning angrily to face him.

"So you can jump?" he grunted, looking pointedly over the roof. "Hell, no. If you're going out, Erin, it's because I finally threw your ass over the edge for something you deserve...not because you're consumed by guilt for something you had _no_ control over."

"That boy..."

"Man, Erin. He was a man. A man that was a federal agent assigned to _your_ protective detail. He knew the risks when he signed up for the job," Dave stated grimly, barely resisting the urge to attempt to shake some sense into her traumatized brain. With his luck, though, he'd just managed to bruise the important parts and confuse her even further.

Lips tightening, Erin shook her head, his words simply that. Words. Anderson had been a young agent filled with amazing promise...right up until he'd stepped in front of that bullet. For her.

"He was a _child_," Erin hissed, refusing to acknowledge any of his sentiments. "Young enough to be my son..."

Dave shook his head gravely as her words trailed off. "You're personalizing it, Erin."

Eyes widening at his accusation, Erin turned violently away from him, pacing the length of the wall. "Isn't that rich?" she spat. "David Rossi is condemning _me_ for acting _human._ Isn't that what you've been hoping I'd become for _years_, David?"

"Oh, hell," Dave blustered as he watched her stiff body begin to pace. Running an agitated hand through his dark hair, he deliberated how to reach the woman that had alternately infuriated and mesmerized him for a quarter of a century. "You were always _human_, Erin. I just don't always agree with what kind of human being you chose to be."

Pausing mid-pace, Erin turned to shoot Dave a scathing look over her shoulder. "You don't approve of _my _choices that I've made? You've sat in as judge and jury of me for twenty years, David. Tell me something I _don't_ know."

"Something you _don't_ know," Dave mused, crossing his arms over his chest as he made himself comfortable against the brick wall. "Okay, Erin. That pain you've got in your chest right now...that tightness...it isn't being caused by that cigarette smoking in your hand. That's your _heart_, babe. That thing that we all thought was long dead. Surprise, sweetheart! It wasn't."


	2. Chapter 2

**_Hello, friends! Our newest challenge, Fanfic Challenge Round 12 "Writers of the Silver Screen" is underway! Assignments have been distributed, and new stories are already being posted, so please check out the forum for the updated list!_**

**_Oh, and we're having a lot of fun over at Facebook. To join in the conversations, simply friend "Ilovetvalot Fanfiction". That's me. I'll get you added as quickly as possible. It's just another way for we writers and readers to communicate. And I love to hear from y'all._**

**_Gotta take a second to thank all our loyal readers for sticking with us. Tonnie and I are having a blast bringing y'all stories. We do want to let you know that our posts are fluctuating right now, but we are both getting back into the swing of things. We appreciate your support, and we are diligently working on all of our epics and many new oneshots!_**

**_Now, on with the show..._**

* * *

**Keep Your Friends Close...and Your Enemies Closer**

**Chapter Two**

"Bastard," Erin spat, her eyes narrowing.

"Every fucking day," Dave agreed cockily, nodding his head. "But my status as a bastard doesn't change the facts. After all these years, the Ice Queen is thawing. And it's about damned time."

"I hate you!" Erin hissed, silently cursing the tears rising in her crystalline eyes. Jerking her face away, she prayed he hadn't seen the telltale shimmer in the dim moonlight.

"Avert your face all you want, Erin," Dave chided, pushing away from the barrier and slowly walking toward her. "I already saw them," he said knowingly, leaning forward to whisper against her ear.

"I despise you with every fiber of my being, David," Erin said huskily, loathing her weak nature and hating him more for seeing it.

But as much as she despised him, she couldn't move away.

"Sure you do," Dave sighed, slipping his arms around her narrow waist and pulling her tense body against his.

"I do," she insisted, her voice cracking as her tears leaked from her eyes faster and harder.

"Uh huh," he breathed, relieved when she began to soften against him. "Do us both a favor here though, babe," he said softly against her hair, "Hate me later. Right now, turn around and bury your head against my chest and cry it out, for God's sake."

"I can't," she choked, blinking rapidly as she tried to control the oncoming flood of alien sentiments, desperate to navigate these murky emotional waters.

Calmly plucking the still burning cigarette from her fingers, Dave tossed it away before turning her into his arms. "Yeah, you can," he said softly, wrapping his arms around her as the first sob escaped her throat.

A few long minutes later, Erin finally hitched her breath against Dave's warm, now damp, neck and forced herself to release her unyielding grip on his light blue dress shirt. Leaning heavily against him, she allowed herself to be momentarily grateful for the strong arms encircling her, holding her up, giving her strength that she didn't yet possess. "I'm sorry," she breathed against his shoulder as she turned her head, pressing her cheek against his soft shirt as she tried to gain control of her tenuous feelings.

"Don't be," Dave urged, tightening his arms around her as he held her closer. It had been over twenty years since he'd last held her against him. But their bodies still fit together like a hand inside a glove despite the intervening years. It still felt like coming home.

"How long will you hold _this_ over my head, David?" she whispered, her words muffled as she buried her nose in his collar, inhaling his familiar spicy scent, a scent she'd never forgotten. Spice and man...that defined David Rossi.

Smiling against her temple, Dave whispered, "How about we both agree to forget the last half hour happened after we step off this roof. Good for you?"

"That works for me," Erin said with a watery chuckle, letting out a deep breath. "Although why you'd want to allow me that mercy I'll never know."

"Simple," Dave murmured. "That means I can do this with no repercussions," he whispered, dipping his head to claim her lips in a single fluid motion.

Gasping, Erin was stunned as his lips molded hers to his, his tongue sweeping against hers passionately, stealing her breath...her reason. Closing her eyes, she allowed herself this brief instant, entwined in his arms to forget the past and future...to simply absorb the now.

Kissing her deeply, Dave tried to forget the fear he'd felt this afternoon, seeing that gun aimed at her, knowing that he'd never be able to make the shot that would save her life...never be able to get to her in time. Instead he tried concentrate on the feel of his arms surrounding her, her soft body pressed flush against his, the velvet slide of her tongue touching his, the sweet intoxicating taste of her kiss. They could go back to being frenemies in a few moments. For now, she was his again and there wasn't a river of bitterness and regret between them. In this moment, because of one young man's bravery, she was still here. In his arms. Alive.

"David," Erin moaned against his mouth. "Wh-what..."

And that quickly, the intricate weave of wonderment dissolved. "This never happened, remember, Erin?" Dave said softly as he reluctantly pulled away. "No harm, no foul," he breathed, unable to resist pressing one last soft kiss to her supple lips. Forcing himself to take a step back from her, he kept his hands on her waist long enough to be certain she'd found her footing again. Then, his hands dropped away.

"I don't..." Erin blinked rapidly, trying to find coherent thought again as the last remnants of the sensual spell she'd temporarily been under fell away.

"Go home, Erin," Dave ordered softly, turning her shoulders gently. "Get some rest. Today can't be changed. You have to accept that things are what they are. People are who they are," he said meaningfully, his eyes dark. "But you weren't to blame for Anderson's death. No more than any of us are."

She watched as he slowly but surely began to disassociate himself from the events of the last few minutes. Nodding, she swallowed. "I suppose you're right," she said, lifting her chin almost defiantly.

Smiling faintly as he watched her square her shoulders and regain her regal composure, Dave smirked. "So glad you agree, Erin."

Hackles rising as she noted the smug glow in his devious eyes, Erin pursed her lips. "I wouldn't become too accustomed to it, David. I'm sure it will be another quarter century before it happens again," she said, sweeping past him toward the metal door leading back into the relative safety of the building.

Her parting shot delivered, he watched as she disappeared through the door, softly closing it behind her with a decisive click, his soft laughter taunting her.

Leaning against the wall just inside the doorway, Erin caught her breath.

Too many altogether close calls today, she thought, glaring at the closed door. And unfortunately for her, David Rossi was as lethal for her as any bullet aimed in her direction.

Sadly, she doubted any agent would be willing to throw himself in front of that particular threat.

And, honestly, she would never want them to. That was one danger she was still willing to face herself.

Finis


End file.
